My guesses are:
(1) Chinese surveillance balloons (as was in the news a lot earlier this year)
(2) Chinese military/surveillance UAVs
E.g. surveillance high-altitude balloons and HALE UAVs over the past decades
Regarding the object shot down over Canada:
> Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced Saturday's shootdown over the northern Yukon territory, saying Canadian forces would recover and analyze the wreckage. (...) Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand declined to speculate about the origin of the object, which she said was cylindrical in shape. (...) "The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin," it said in a statement.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-still-gives-no-details-a...
Officially, they gave up the search after a few days.
And as for the object shot down over Alaska:
> But the pilots later gave differing reports of what they observed, the source briefed on the intelligence said. (...) Some pilots said the object “interfered with their sensors” on the planes, but not all pilots reported experiencing that. (...) Some pilots also claimed to have seen no identifiable propulsion on the object, and could not explain how it was staying in the air, despite the object cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet. (...) It’s unclear what the object looks like, or where it came from. On Friday, Ryder said it was traveling north east across Alaska. He declined to provide a physical characterization, only saying that it was “about the size of a small car” and “not similar in size or shape” to the Chinese surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. (...) recovery teams are now collecting the debris that is sitting on top of ice in US territorial waters.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/11/politics/unidentified-obj...
This one was also, officially, not recovered, for some reason.
If these are not bona fide UFO's, I don't know what to call them. What I know is that no government official called them "balloons", nor were they associated with China, nor did we get to see a single photo of them.
> The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week that one of its balloons had gone missing, and that it may have been among the objects shot down by the US Air Force using a Sidewinder heat-seeking missile.
> The club said that it had been tracking the course of its silver pico balloon. Its last reported position was on February 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska.
> Pico ballooning involves flying high altitude balloons that resemble party balloons, then tracking their flight path as they travel across the globe. A pico balloon can cost anywhere from $12 to $180, according to reports.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-downed-400000-missile-ai...
Most UFO sightings are completely banal things that are not recognized at the time, like camera artifacts and (unironically) atmospheric phenomena.
There are of course also hundreds of millions of people in the developing world living in rural areas but they likely have other life priorities than noticing lights in the sky.
My point is that whatever it is it is probably a global phenomenon but only Americans are both geographically and culturally inclined (Hollywood) to notice and report it.
There are classified operations to test potential targets. And open intelligence networks to organize and connect disparate groups.
Different parts of the government benefit in various ways. It will never be explained because the government can’t stop its employees from believing in supernatural ideas.
If there is an illegal disinformation program or psyop, it is unconnected to the government and conducted over multi-decades. It will be extremely hard to prove until it becomes operational (ie in a hot war with China).
In the meantime, the og UFO promoters are aging and they have created a new religion to explain the mysteries of life and death. These are the same people behind Lue Elizondo and David Grusch.
psyops to study online group dynamics
I know what I want to be when I grow up…
(The job is much more mundane than the title sounds.)
(Their actual job is to coordinate very precise measurements of the earth's rotation to determine how its rotation is shifting relative to atomic time).
I want to believe ;)
At the very least I would have hoped that there would be more than just a link to the video, and a section saying that some convincing explanations have been proposed. Right now it looks like on the first day it was released, as if this case was still just as mysterious.
If you want to be a conspiracy theorist, do consider the level of information and effort the org appears to be putting in.
All we get (if you peruse the UFOs subreddit at least, or twitter) is people like george knapf and the other dude that makes the documentaries like skyranch, everyday saying stuff like "My source in DOD says BIG intel drop coming VERY SOON.". They literally say that stuff everyday. It's getting to QAnon levels of ridiculous.
BTW though I want to believe. LLAP.
I want to believe
It doesn't get more honestly scientific than that.
A lot of people “want to believe” their ideas are correct, and end up smudging some data points to justify their biases.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/07/typo-...
Legit whistle blower site, or Honeypot?
Got a good laugh out of the line "committed to transparency". I'd hope so but I'm not counting on it
Anyone know who's hiring for this program and whether I can be an investigator? I'd love to be the one who pours through piles of looney reports of UFO activity, looking for any sign of intelligence.
No, some shit about UFOs. "Hey look, something shiny!"